Hebrew word · H7486

רַֽעַמְסֵס

ra'amses

Rameses

A place name from Egyptian Pr-R'-ms-sw, 'House of Ramesses'. It is spelled Ra'amses in Exod 1:11 and Ra'meses here and in Gen 47:11 and Num 33:3, 5.

Appears 5 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

§ Raamses or Rameses = "child of the sun"

a city in lower Egypt built by Hebrew slaves; probably in Goshen

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Exodus 12:37

Range of meaning

A place name from Egyptian Pr-R'-ms-sw, 'House of Ramesses'. It is spelled Ra'amses in Exod 1:11 and Ra'meses here and in Gen 47:11 and Num 33:3, 5.

Against the English

English 'Rameses' is a straightforward transliteration. Readers may not realize it names a real royal city.

Used elsewhere in the period

Pi-Ramesses, the great eastern Delta residence of Ramesses II (13th century BCE), has been identified by excavation at Qantir, next to Tell el-Dab'a (the work of Manfred Bietak and the Hildesheim team). Exod 1:11 lists it with Pithom as a 'store city' built by Israelite forced labor. Gen 47:11's 'land of Rameses' applies the name to Joseph's time, which suggests the name was used, or updated, for readers who knew it.

Where it appears

Genesis · 1

  1. Genesis 47:11 רַעְמְסֵ֑ס Rameses

    So Joseph settled his father and brothers in the land of Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the district of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.

Exodus · 2

  1. Exodus 1:11 רַעַמְסֵֽס׃ Rameses

    So the Egyptians appointed taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. As a result, they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.

    Here: "Raamses": the Egyptian royal name Ra-messes, 'Ra has fathered him'. It almost certainly refers to Pi-Ramesse ('House of Ramesses'), the great eastern Delta residence-city of Ramesses II.

  2. Exodus 12:37 מֵרַעְמְסֵ֖ס from Rameses

    The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth with about 600,000 men on foot, besides women and children.

    Here: "From Rameses." This is the Delta city that bore Pharaoh Ramesses' name, one of the store cities Israel was forced to build (1:11). The march starts at the site of their slave labor.

Numbers · 2

  1. Numbers 33:3 מֵֽרַעְמְסֵס֙ from Rameses

    On the fifteenth day of the first month, on the day after the Passover, the Israelites set out from Rameses. They marched out defiantly in full view of all the Egyptians,

  2. Numbers 33:5 מֵרַעְמְסֵ֑ס from Rameses

    The Israelites set out from Rameses and camped at Succoth.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.